Are you growing your child into God’s image or your own?

If you don’t know your child’s personality type, it’s very easy to grow him/her into your own image and make them like you.

One of the exercises that I use at the beginning of my parenting seminar, is to ask each parent to list 3 qualities they’d like their child to have. There are a lot of great responses like obedient, loving, kind, and respectful.

Who doesn’t want that?

But after going through an explanation of the four personality types, it’s interesting how many parents notice that their answers are based on their own personality type.

If the parent is gentle and quiet, they’d like their child to be gentle and quiet.

If the parent is fun and outgoing, they’d like their child to be fun and outgoing.

It’s an Aha! moment for most parents as they realize they’ve been expecting their children to be carbon copies of them, when in fact their child is a completely different personality type.

It’s so important that we become students of our children and learn what personality type God has given them. He chose it for a reason. He doesn’t want you to train it out of them. He wants you to affirm it, nurture it, and let it be used for Him.

This is what it means to raise your child in the image of God.

Check out this 2 minute video on the difference between raising our children in our image or the one God gave them.